9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.in other words, do not lie. how’s that one working out? and what about those little ‘white lies’ we all tell to protect someone else… are those allowable? after all, we're saying something; perhaps just a slight stretch the truth; to protect someone else. that’s an act of love, right!? how can showing love to someone be a sin?
i like throwing in one of our cultures favorite little sins with this also, do not gossip. think about that one for a minute. there are entire television programs and magazines dedicated to this. gossip has become a way of life for so many of us. a friend tells you a secret in confidence…is that secret safe from others ears? in a time of instant communication (text messaging, im, facebook, etc.) how quickly does something meant for your ears only turn into an over-developed drama played out amongst your entire email address book?
some people go as far as to make lying and gossip an art form to be perfected. our world is full of these falsehoods. another reason we are called to be in the world but not of the world.
2 comments:
I think this commandment in principle prohibits white lies, even lies we think are motivated by love. I understand there can be difficult situations when we do not want to hurt someone's feelings. But obedience to God takes precedent.
God Himself cannot lie (Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18). Jesus Christ is the exact image of the Father in character (John 14:9), and in the resurrection when we are in the kingdom of God, we will be like God and Christ (1 John 3:2). I believe that Jesus never told even a white lie to spare someone's feelings, and I think when we are immortal in the Kingdom of God with Christ and God, we will never lie to each other for any reason.
This life is the training ground to learn how to put telling the truth into practice.
Actually, I expect the wording of this verse is what brought about the concept of a white lie.
"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" or "You shall not witness falsely against your neighbor." The letter of the law would seem to apply only to an official inquery. The letter of the law would seem to only apply if your neighbor could be harmed by what you say. If you say you love chocolate and act like you do, but you really hate it, I don't think this law applies.
On the other hand, I don't think witness/testimony should be so easily narrowed to official inquery, and we know what Jesus had to say about who our neighbor is. The effect of a word can be far reaching. Someone taking your word that you didn't do something by extention implicates your neighbor, since someone did it. Spreading gossip falls under this law since you are definately giving testimony against your neighbor and you probably aren't sure it isn't false.
In any case this is irrelevant because the Ten Commandments are but a shaddow pointing to the true law. "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Matthew 5:33-37
Obviously, this indicates that we should speak with such integrity that what we say never comes into question such that we might need to take an oath.
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